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Bringing All Voices to the Table

By Hannah Jastram, Communications Associate

On Thursday, June 30, a team of Extension educators is hosting a participant-driven, web-based conversation about bringing all voices to the table to support health equity, food security, and healthy food access in Southwest Minnesota communities.

Anne Dybsetter and Mary Schroeder, University of Minnesota Extension health and nutrition educators with the Center for Family Development, are teaming up with Toby Spanier and Neil Linscheid, Extension educators with the Center for Community Vitality, to facilitate an online conversation. With the help of guiding questions, participants will share stories, ideas, and resources about invitation, voice, barriers, and engagement in their rural communities. This webinar is part of the Southwest Food Network Community of Practice (CoP), a year-long series of learning opportunities related to network-building, facilitation, assessment, and action planning focused on health equity and food access.
With the Minnesota Food Charter as a guide, the Southwest Food Network CoP invites SNAP-Ed educators and Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) staff from the region, along with resource people to events and webinars where they work together on food access, food skills, food infrastructure, and other issues grounded in the Minnesota Food Charter. The CoP seeks to:

Improve skills in building coalitions and networks among key players, in order to increase the number and strength of cross-sector, collaborative efforts.

Continue building understanding of — and ability to act on — health equity.

Encourage learning, sharing, and idea-generating around strategies to increase health equity and inclusion in small and rural communities in Southwest Minnesota, with a focus particularly on SNAP-eligible community members.